


A Merry Chase

by redjaded (timeheist)



Series: The Redjay [8]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Torchwood
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-28
Updated: 2014-07-28
Packaged: 2018-02-10 18:52:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 8,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2036205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timeheist/pseuds/redjaded
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And then of course there was that time that Roda might have crossed her timeline twice and had sex with a pair of Time Agents...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place during Roda's 6th regeneration, and is set somewhere in her time working with Torchwood, before The Year That Never Was. This fic had been retconned and corrected to reconcile with new canon of my 'verse, and is now being reposted here.

“Oh you cannot be serious...!” The Redjay groaned, narrowing her eyes down the barrel of a gun and slowly raising her hands above her heart. “You... You don’t know me yet, do you?”

“Know you? I know you. The Redjay, right?” Captain Jack Harkness - or whatever he called himself right now - winked flirtatiously, reaching into his back pocket and sidling ever closer, gun still trained on first Roda’s forehead, and then her temple. His face broke into a wide grin and he tipped his head onto his side, appraising his ‘catch’. “I wouldn’t mind getting to know you, though.”

Roda snarled exasperatedly. She wasn’t angry, not really – after all, Jack was a friend. Or rather, would be a friend, some time in his future. No, what bothered her was how much this reminded her of the first time she’d met Jack, a good nine hundred years ago, now. When she’d still been Gallifreyan, before she had been the Redjay. A ‘meeting’ where Jack had tortured her for information she hadn’t yet obtained, and which Roda had escaped from just barely, with three bullets to the back. She cursed, keeping her mismatched blue/green eyes firmly on Jack’s gun, forcing herself to imagine him as a friend and not the old enemy he had once been.

After all, he didn’t seem to recognize her. Was this before they’d met for him at all, or had that happed during the years that the Time Agency had stolen from him? Was this happening, too, and his memories in a constant flux of loss? Though of course, she’d regenerated. Either way, he was just doing his job... In his typically flirtatious but now almost sleazy way. That didn’t mean she’d make his job any easier or cut him any slack if he tried any funny business just because he was her friend and she would one day be his.

“Don’t push your luck, Jack.”

He raised his eyebrows, one hand freezing behind his back. “I think you have me confused with somebody else.”

“Ye- No.” She sighed, closing her eyes tight, wanting to pinch the bridge of her nose but certain any sudden movements of her hands might get her shot again. “Your reputation precedes you, Jack.”

“I've not used that one yet. Nice ring to it." He chuckled, patting her backside. "Try James Scot, Sweetcheeks”

James. She'd never get used to that. But - wait - “Sweetcheeks!?”

“Not working for you?”

Roda scowled, staying away from the bait with stressed nonchalance. "I prefer Jack."

Jack smirked, nudging her temple with the gun, and pulling a pair of handcuffs from his back pocket. Roda sucked in her breath again, fighting with difficulty with her temper. Fleetingly she wondered if he always carried around handcuffs, even when he wasn’t working, and then blushed furiously and lifted her chin coolly. “Hands where I can see them, Sweetcheeks.”

“Call me that one more time, and I’ll break your nose.” Unable to think up a better response, Roda pulled her hands down and stretched them out in front of her, stepping back so that their fronts no longer touched and putting her wrists together. It didn’t help matters much that pretty much anyone who met Jack, regardless of gender, species or marital status, tended to leave his company with some form of unresolved tension; be it sexual or violent. Despite her efforts Roda was more accustomed to the former, and rather dangerously she was beginning to crave the latter too. Jack forced forward again, not as courteous as she remembered him, and up against the back of a sort of hovering squad car Roda cursed, her hands curling into fists. “You’ve read my file, Captain.” A bluff. “You do the maths.”

“Captain, still with the Captain. Got a thing for guys in uniform?" Jack/James winked, and Roda scowled into his chest. "What file? We’ve got nothing on you Redjay, and what he might have on you, is classified information. Although...” He cuffed her quickly, smooth as ever, and used the chain of the handcuffs to pull her against him properly, free hand moulded into the small of her back. “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine.” He winked. “Literally, if you like that sort of thing.”

“Go to Skaro.”

“Sweetcheeks, there’s a whole different circle of Hell reserved for men like me and I’m telling ya, I’ll go there gladly. But not today.” Roda hadn’t noticed his mouth hovering over hers as she spoke until he leant back, putting her over his shoulder in one fluid movement and reaching for his wrist. But Roda knew about his vortex manipulator, even as she squeaked, struggling to wriggle out of his grasp.

“Put me down!”

“But it’s so much more fun this way.” He smacked her ass, where it bobbed he felt somewhat conveniently, and started typing in coordinates. To where, Roda could only guess, but she knew damn fine if she went back to the Time Agency Headquarters and this was after her first encounter, then she was screwed. The Boeshane Peninsula was clearly cursed for her – only her second visit to the series of planets, and both of them ending in ‘police’ custody. Of course this time, it wasn’t the planet that gave the ring its name but one of the much smaller communities. Honestly, she’d hoped to avoid the Time Agency’s attention by sticking to the sidelines. She tried to curl around Jack’s waist for his wrist, to get the watch off of him, but either her anticipated the move or worked too quickly for her. The whole arrest shrouded in a chameleon filter, and the only thing the public ever heard was Roda’s growl as she and Jack teleported.


	2. Chapter 2

“Great taste, James, but do you have to take the girls home when we’re on a job?” Jack raised an eyebrow and the man who was likely his partner laughed. “I’m kidding, James. But is this one open to threesomes?”

Roda narrowed her eyes, jangling her wrist where Jack had fastened one half of the handcuffs – mercifully designed for bipeds, otherwise she dreaded just how much they would dig into all the wrong places (it had happened before) – to the head of a bed. At least, she reasoned, she wasn’t cuffed to a radiator on the floor. Cliché, if nothing else, but she was too annoyed to rile him. Still smug, though; sure, he’d managed to capture her, but the second they’d landed in this base of sorts Roda had managed to get Jack’s wrist under her foot, clumsily, barely hurting him but breaking the vortex manipulator beyond use. Jack had been close to furious, but content that his partner would have a manipulator he could use. Fortunately for Roda now that they were inside and apparently in a shared bedroom, Jack had learnt that his partner had lost his in a bet; Roda had strained to hear their conversation in the next room and now both men had returned to her makeshift cell. “I’m not a whore.”

“This is the Redjay, Will." He turned back to Roda. "William Wolfram." Will waved playfully as Jack turned back to him. "Time Lord we were looking for? One I lost a few years ago?” Jack pouted, winking at her again, but there was something dark behind his eyes. Roda remembered their first meeting, too... “Led us a merry chase, love.”

“Try again. It’s Redjay.”

“Regenerating, like that.” Jack tipped his head then disappeared into another room with the broken halves of his vortex manipulator.

Will laughed even louder. “I’d almost say you were trying to avoid us, Red.”

“Nicknames? Is it a bloody Time Agent thing or something?” Roda began sulking, pouting in turn and squirming on the bed to sit cross-legged, folding her arms. At least Red was preferable to Jack’s names; damn it, he hadn’t earned the right to treat her like that yet. Will, still amused, sat down at the other end of the bed and watched her like a hawk. Roda shivered, unnerved. “Get lost.”

“Wild one you got here, James.”

“Jack has not got me!”

"I said James, Sugar. Should we be jealous?"

"Oh bugger off." Roda pulled frantically at the chain until her arm started to throb, then snarled angrily and threw herself back against the bed, lying back. Will whistled and she put her arm over her chest, snorting. Typical. Jack had never told her about his old partner before, and she was beginning to see why. “Both of you, you’re unbelievable.”

“And that’s a good thing, right?”

“Don’t flatter yourself.”

“Coffee, Sweetheart?” Jack reappeared with an armful of half-cleaned mugs and a steaming pot of what vaguely resembled coffee. Roda couldn’t stifle a moan, her quarrel about names swiftly forgotten. Coffee, real coffee. None of the strange beverages that passed for anything non-alcoholic in the fifty-something centuries of the human population. Somewhere down the line, in her over-a-century of life, she’d developed a love for coffee that came close to an addiction for caffeine, and she’d been craving it since things started to go belly up. She glared but swallowed her pride, nodding, and Will moved a little closer to Roda so that Jack could sit down, the bed sinking in the middle under their combined weight. Jack passed her a cup and without a word of thanks Roda dusted off the top with a grimace and downed most of the coffee. Will smoothed down the lapels of his red Venetian coat as he drank his own coffee with less haste, and Roda did her best to keep her eyes off of it. She felt like a magpie, and turned her back on them both when Jack smiled knowingly.

“Gonna wait till you get the wristwatch fixed or bring her in the old-fashioned way?” Roda perked up, listening intently, and Jack’s grin broadened, as he pulled Will to his feet and muttered a string of words into his ear. She didn’t catch any words, just the feel of them from Jack’s own trained telepathy, but the sex appeal between the two partners was obvious. Roda wasn’t sure how to respond, while waiting for her chance to escape; she could break free of the handcuffs quickly and be gone if there was no one watching her. She’d done so a hundred times... Although admittedly, never from Time Agency standard cuffs.

“...Need your help in the morning.”

“Hey, wait a minute!” Roda shuffled back up onto her knees, pulling at the cuffs again. She nearly dropped the mug, and Jack tsked playfully, making her even madder. “Help with what in the morning?”

“There’s a price on your head, Redjay. Theft, breaking and entering, jumping bail... Not to mention the Shadow Proclamation wanting to question you!” Roda grimaced. Centuries old crimes, resurfacing. Spectacular. And here she’d tried to stay on the straight and narrow, so far as her Robin Hood complex went, specifically at future Jack’s request! That was a deal she’d be breaking once she got out of this and got back into synch with her timeline.

“You don’t understand, I’m crossing my timeline here.”

“Do it all the time, Red.” Drawled Will, lying down on the other side of the bed and stretching out like a cat. Smirking, Jack fell into place between them, and Roda found herself lying down again so she could curl up into a ball and get as far away from them as possible. Damn it, damn it, damn it! “Where’s the fun in playing by the rules?”

“Trust me, if you’d ever been to Gallifrey, you’d feel differently.”

“Hey if all the Time Lords look like you, count me in!”

“Time Lady.” Roda muttered absently as Jack turned off the light, disgruntled that she wouldn’t be left on her own. As though reading her thoughts Jack patted his waist as he pulled off his coat to leave behind his unbuttoned shirt, making it clear where his pistols were before removing them from the holsters and putting them beside Will, just out of Roda’s reach. Then he folded his arms behind his head, and sighed, closing his eyes.

“Night Red.”

“I didn’t say I agreed to that one either!” Snapped Roda half-heartedly, and as Jack smirked to himself, Will kicked off his boots and made himself comfortable in his side of the bed.

“Y’ever get cold in the night Red, think of us as more than just your friendly neighbourhood Time Agents.”

“Fuck off.”

“Yep.” Will rolled over, yawned, and rested his head in the crook of his arm. “I like this one, James.”


	3. Chapter 3

Failing with the task of removing the handcuffs, Roda’s second plan for escape didn’t go too well either. The guns just sat there, mocking her, and although she had never been a wonderful markswoman with a gun, neither of the Time Agents knew that. But small and flexible though she was, she couldn’t get her free arm anywhere near the table without touching the naked chests of and waking one or both men. That left Will and his strange, hotchpotch collection of weapons; how he slept without killing himself Roda could only wonder. Again, she couldn’t reach his guns, but she could just brush her fingertips across the hilt of a knife in a holster on his thigh, and if she could hold it to one of their throats, maybe she could get the other one to get the cuffs off of her. They weren’t precisely the Time Agency’s finest so far as sticking to the rules went, that much was clear, but hopefully, they were loyal to each other.

Of course the second she’d gotten her grip on the knife (or at least, a few fingers around the hilt) Jack – a notoriously loud sleeper – decided to roll over half onto her, trapping her leg underneath him and pulling her arm back as her body was forced to turn. Roda’s sharp intake of air, combined with elbowing him in the ribs and collapsing on top of him rather unceremoniously, woke both of them. Within and instant Jack had his arm around her waist, keeping her in position, and a more bleary-eyed Will was glaring at her reproachfully and holding onto her free arm around the elbow. Groaning, Roda tightened her grip on the time-displaced knife.

“Weren’t thinking of knifing one of us, were you Red? After all this hospitality we’re giving you, too...!” He put his other hand over his heart, then tried to prise her long fingers off of his knife. His thumb grazed her claddagh ring and he paused for a moment, surprised, before moving his hand quickly to avoid Roda’s attempt to throw herself at his arm with her teeth. He chuckled, turning the ring over tentatively, pulling one of his guns from his belt and holding it to her head, and Roda backed away.

Jack rolled his eyes but didn’t tell Will to put away the weapon, and Roda glared at Jack so violently she could have bored a hole in his head. Will released her fingers with an intrigued hum. “Old Celtic tradition, right?” Roda grit her teeth, refusing to answer. “Thought so. So Earth’s your stomping grounds, then. Crown that way up means you’re single too, doesn’t it?”

Roda cursed, and Jack loosened his grip on her waist just enough to lift her hand to the light. “It’s just a ring. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Sure it does. One more piece of information to give to our bosses.” Jack dropped her hand and then her waist, grunting before closing his eyes. Roda frowned, not out of anger as she got back into her side of the bed but out of intrigue. The unsaid words were loud in his head. ‘And then maybe they’ll give me back my two years, if I bring her in’. That wasn’t fair; Jack the Time Agent wasn’t allowed to make her feel guilty like that, only Jack the Torchwood operative. "Shut up and go to sleep. We'll hire a car in the morning." As Jack went back to sleep and Will reproachfully dropped all of his weapons to the floor, Roda curled up into a tighter ball, thoughts torn, and finally fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bit of an annoying chapter, as there was meant to be one between the last one and this one but it was lost. I've done my best to make sense of this one to bridge the gap, but you can just assume that they found another mode of transport and some time has passed.

“We’ve been driving for hours, James. Pull over.”

The peace was never going to last for long.

All things considered it had been quiet for the first few minutes after Jack left. After Roda exchanged a few colourful fifty first century insults with Will in exchange for his voracious flirting, the car settled into silence, Will resting his feet behind her head again and cleaning one of his guns with a 1980s rock song on his lips. Roda had busied herself with searching the floor of the car for anything she could use to try and break or pick the lock on the handcuffs that Jack had restrained her to the vintage car door with without Will noticing, although considering she’d spent several hours at the same task the night before to no avail, she wasn’t counting her luck. Usually she could pick a lock in a manner of seconds and it didn’t help her caged mood to be trapped by this one.

They’d been driving for a few hours now, and Roda was no longer sure where they were taking her now that she was caught. Of course she’d given up trying to work it out as soon as all Skaro had broken loose. Within minutes of Jack’s departure the door had been ripped off of the car with Roda along with it, before Roda had even become aware of a spaceship landing in the vicinity. Yet another thing that Roda hadn’t planned was to become a criminal; an outlaw, maybe, like Locksley, but she hadn’t bargained for two of the most powerful police forces in the universe wanting her in various stages of dead or alive.

The Shadow Proclamation was the closest thing that the universe had to a universal taskforce. Their agents were meticulous, professional, and loyal only to themselves. But for the most part, I their bosses said jump, they asked how high. Usually, they kept to the back alleys and the shadows for their work but occasionally the Shadow Proclamation’s cases meant that they had to show up in person, do something very loud, and then silence the witnesses.

The Redjay had gotten their attention when she’d gotten herself exiled… Actually, for quite a bit before, as well, but that was the first time she’d been properly convicted of any crime they could shake a stick at. They hadn’t been large charges, so she’d managed to avoid her execution, but only barely. Since, much like the Doctor and the Master after her she’d broken the rules so many times she’d not bothered counting. But when Gallifrey had fallen into the Time Lock, she thought they might have assumed her gone with it... Roda cursed, standing on her tiptoes with the door hanging from one wrist.

Roda and Will both yelled at the same time. “Jack!!” Roda blinked at Will before trying to pull the handle from the car door. It had been a detonation from one of the agents’ weapons that blew the door off of its hinge and the door, unfortunately, that kept Roda from turning on tail and running. For every good thing she had to say about her life, there was an equal degree of fear; fear for the Shadow Proclamation, fear for Rassilon, fear for the Master, and yes, fear of the Time Agency. Had she been human, psychiatrists and psychologists would have diagnosed so many issues and tensions coiled up that it was a wonder Roda could get up in the morning. But like the bullets her regeneration had incorporated into her DNA, she built such a thick shield around her insecurities that she’d almost forgotten they were there. To say that Roda was neurotic would have been an understatement.

The handle only just tore off. As Will threw himself over the back of the car and lunged for his dropped gun, Roda groped to her shoulder as best she could, looking for her bow or a gun. She glanced at the boot of the car, swearing, and remembered that Jack had confiscated her bow, quiver, and sonic pen when he’d arrested her. Turning her head back she made eye contact with the Shadow Proclamation agent, shutting off her mind from him and feigning an ignorance that, with the red feathers laced into her too-long strawberry-blond hair she couldn’t afford, and was about to shout out a warning, or a threat, when the agent’s eyes widened, and he froze in mid step towards her. The agent pitched forward and Roda leapt, landing on her knees, using one leg to turn the man over with a look of pain on her face that mingled with relief. Dead; or dying. He couldn’t drag her back to the Shadow Proclamation, but... He’d been doing his job. Time spent with the Doctor had her preferring not to kill. She shivered, too, as she strained to check the agent’s pulse, not able to move further without being able to drag an entire car door behind her. If she’d thought the CIA were the best, how good were the Time Agency, to train a man who could take down an agent of the Shadow Proclamation in one shot?

“What the bloody hell is going on?!” Jack was back outside in a flash, throwing a bag into the back of the car and crouching down beside the dying agent, looking between him, Roda and Will. He looked more shocked than angry or worried, and dragged Roda from the agent’s orange armour to check the pulse himself, as Will blinked in obvious astonishment and clumsily put his gun into the rim of his belt. Jack glanced at her, expecting answers, and Roda looked right back at Jack as though it was his agency’s fault for bring them here. She had to find the Jack that she’d know in the future, the Jack who would do whatever he could for this fallen soldier if he’d been wrongly injured by his party’s hands. “He’s alive?”

“Close to death.” Roda almost whispered, settling back on her haunches, keeping Jack’s gaze.“He needs medical care.”

“But-“

Roda growled lightly, jangling her wrists. “Get these off me, unless you want him to die.”

“He would have killed us.” Will scowled, not understanding showing mercy to his own would-be killer.

“No, he... I...”

Roda scowled, and Jack raised a characteristic eyebrow, his features growing more gentle. He patted his pocket and pulled out the key, watching Roda intently as he freed her scraped raw wrists and she ran to pull the agent to a fifty first century police box and slam her hand onto the alarm call button. She waited until there was a buzz of an answer, and forced herself to remain calm enough to use the right stolen security codes to get him immediate teleportation back to the Shadow Proclamation, thankful at least that the bullet had come out the other side of him. She wouldn’t let Will follow her in, but she let Jack, who took the agent’s other side and helped lift him onto the chair in the box. When she was sure help was coming Roda all but dragged Jack ouside, forgetting the idea of running away all together as she punched Will across the mouth.

“Bastard!”

“I saved your life, Red!” Will laughed disbelievingly, rubbing his jaw as Jack grabbed hold of Roda around the middle before she went for one of their guns. Her file at the Time Agency said very little, but it insisted that she was one of the most dangerous criminals in their records. Jack had wondered if it was wrong, having seen her the last two days, until now. There was fury in her eyes, even as Will turned cocky and straightened up, smirking. He grinned, Roda panted, and Jack chuckled knowingly, shepherding them both out of side before the authorities arrived. “I like her even more now, James!”

“Jack.” Roda’s quiet voice got Jack’s attention and he let her go, grimacing once at the car before watching her.

“Yeah, Redjay?” The matter was too serious for him to be making jokes with nicknames.

“’S Roda. Call me Roda.” She swallowed. “And... Leave him. Alright?” She pointed back in the direction of the approaching teleportation device. “He was just trying to do the same thing you are. He’s no interest to you.”

Jack frowned in thought, and although he didn’t answer, took Roda by the shoulder to stop her running off and jerked his head towards Will, setting them off walking again. He and Will may have been partners but Jack’s commanding aura – like in Torchwood – was already clear. Will sighed exasperatedly but ducked back to sneak Jack’s paper bag from the back of the abandoned car and fished for the glass bottle, popping the cap with his belt and swigging the drink under the pretence of comfort after his fight.

Jack snapped his fingers and Will tossed him another pair of handcuffs, and after flashing his ID and a handful of credits and batting his eyelids Jack had gotten them another car. He paused before putting the cuffs back on Roda’s wrists, tearing strips off his shirt tails and wrapping them over the grazes before cuffing her to, this time, the arm of the seat. Roda rested her head back and closed her eyes, gratefully accepting the bottle of whiskey from Will when he was willing to relinquish it, and fell into an almost ashamed quiet until they stopped for the night. Jack watched her all the way home.


	5. Chapter 5

“I don’t think I’ve ever been on a ship in police custody before.”

“Custody’s a very harsh word, Red.” Will yawned, stretching out across the centre of the double bed, on guard duty. Jack had met a girl in the bar and after an argument with Will disappeared into her room for an hour or so, content that in the middle of outer space, Roda wasn’t going to be going anywhere very easily. Clearly Will resented not being invited along too, but he had still agreed to keep an eye on their bounty for as long as need be.

He was fairly drunk but still amazingly lucid, and had taken the handcuffs off of her and locked the door to their room on the small public transport ship (an eighteen hour journey, designed for people who couldn’t afford a hyperdrive ticket) instead. Roda was glued to the window; she’d never been able to sightsee in the Boenine Peninsula and couldn’t help but wish she had. It was beautiful, and tonight, took her mind off of everything. Watching space debris roll by the window was calming enough that she could put together the final pieces of an escape plan she’d been planning all day, when she’d found out that Will would be going ahead of Jack when they hit the ‘mainland’. With such a plan she became less tense and less violent towards her captors, and would have likely enjoyed their company, under different circumstances.

“Oh? And what would you call it?”

“Come and lie down and have a drink and I’ll show you.”

Roda rolled her eyes, running her hands through her hair. Jack had insisted on bandaging her wrists up after the bloody mess she’d made of them both trying to escape and when the door was blown from the car, but they didn’t hurt so much as look bad, and bleed quite a bit; Roda had had much worse injuries in the past. Glancing once more at Will she came over and sat beside him, glad to have her wrists free, and reached absently for the lapels of his coat. Venetian, where his swords would have belonged to Ancient Japanese samurais and his guns the twenty first century, most likely from a part of the Western world. Had Will been a Time Lord Roda reckoned he would have broken even more time travel laws than she did, with her anarchronistic eleventh century attire. Speaking of which... Just as Will grew accustomed to Roda leaning over him, purring quietly, she pulled up, glancing behind him at the room’s en suite.

“I need a shower.”

“Need help?”

“Join the queue. Jack wants to scratch my back first.”

No harm in flirting, right? Roda winked, swinging open the door first to prove that she had no escape route through the bathroom. The room was woefully small, painfully so for Roda, but if she showered quickly, and alone, then she could put up with it. She really needed to be clean, not least of all because with her sleeplessness cutting it too long even for a Time Lord’s stamina the two Time Agents evolved pheromones were starting to go to her head. She ducked into the room and locked the door, adjusting the lights so that they were on max and the water down as cold as it could comfortably get, and washed quickly. Getting out of the shower feeling and smelling much better, she claimed the only towel in the bathroom, snuggling into it soothingly. Towel drying her hair and pulling her dusty and marginally blood-stained clothes back on, she was met by a William Wolfram who was clearly trying to be suave.

“You know you really should put some clean clothes on.” He paused, realising exactly what he’d said, then twirled his wrist dismissively. “It’s a shame you have to hide a body like that behind anything at all, but with your hair smelling of roses so should the rest of you.”

Roda snorted. “Give me your coat, then, if you’re so offended.” She folded her arms then yelped, surprised to feel Will taking her at her word, unbuckling the holster from across his chest and shrugging out of the coat. He held it out to her, clearly expecting Roda to strip off a layer herself, but determined not to encourage him or herself (or Jack when he reappeared) Roda snatched the coat and, fingering the fabric with unhidden awe, changed out of her waistcoat and shirt and into Will’s. Her trousers were fine – the weave tended to last longer than the shirts, after all. Buttoning up Will’s coat still let it hang loose but when she came out of the bathroom again she pulled an awkward but grateful face, and blushed just a little as the Time Agent wolf-whistled the result.

“Red is definitely your colour. Goes with the freckled look.” He waved his arm at the bed. “Care for a lie down while we wait for handsome James’ return from the Crusades?” Roda raised an eyebrow and Will guffawed. “What?”

“Robin Hood jokes. Hilarious.”

“That was a Robin Hood joke?” Roda took advantage of his confusion to fall back onto the larger of the two sleeping spots. Let the men haggle over the sofa for all she cared, unless they wound up joining her in bed again. Will pulled a face and glanced into his bottle, seemingly deciding if he didn’t get her drift then he’d drunk enough for now, and shamelessly joined her, stroking her hair back to fall over one shoulder and speaking into her neck. Roda wanted to smack herself the second she had to bite down on a moan. “I’d like to see more of the renegade side. Like speaks to like, y’know?”

“Y-yeah...”

Will stroked one hand through her hair and held onto her stomach with the other, so that before Roda had time to protest they were rested against each other, Roda facing away from the wall and Will with his back up against it. She shivered, and Will whispered again. “Although I’ve never done this with a Time Lady before. Still ‘go for’ all the usual biped places?” His hand brushed right over her front, and this time Roda purred, cupping her hand over her mouth a second later. Will nibbled at her neck. “Thought so.”

“Can’t I leave ya alone five minutes, Will?”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies are made for the mature scene in this chapter, as this fic was originally written over a year ago when I thought I was actually good at writing such things.

Roda hadn’t even heard Jack enter the room, and stayed somewhat limp in Will’s ‘embrace’ even when Jack’s voice did begin to make sense. Sultry, still, and his hair a little bedraggled. Jack took stock of Roda wearing Will's coat and then pulled off his own hastily dressed shirt, making the most of the situation and climbing into bed on Roda’s other side. Uncharacteristically shy (she’d been intimate with Jack before, but a familiar Jack and not a stranger) Roda flushed, and then cleared her throat and regained control of her own nervous system, teasingly wrapped one of her legs around Jack’s from her position on her side and curled her back up against Will with a quiet moan.

Will purred and mouthed at the back of her neck again and Jack chuckled with, it seemed, more control over himself than the other two. He had just been on a date of sorts, after all, Roda reasoned, biting back a moment of jealousy. Using her heel to put pressure on Jack’s inner thigh to tease him closer Roda pretended this was the Jack she knew, and it wasn’t difficult when he acted as natural as he was right now, as captivated by Roda and Will as the other two were to him and each other. The enhanced pheromones of the two men and Roda’s Time Lord stamina and lust complimented perfectly.

It was hard to say who moved first. Jack was wearing the least clothes and rolling onto his side with Roda’s leg still between his he played with the buttons of Will’s coat, undoing it with a gentleness that maddened Will but that Roda was strangely grateful for. Impatience, however, overtook, as she slid one hand back behind Will’s head to pull him in for an insistent kiss, while doing her best to pull down the zipper of Jack’s trousers. Will moaned like a man who had found fine whiskey during the apocalypse, and slid his hand over her chest as Jack finally finished unbuttoning it, playing with the bare skin and wriggling out of his last, tight layer of t-shirt.

Jack caught Roda’s hand as she finished undoing his trousers and pulled it up to his lips, mouthing at her fingers, so distracting Roda that she wasn’t aware of the handcuff going back around her wrist and to the end of the bed until she was restrained. She pouted, once, then pushed her foot closer between his legs so that it narrowly missed his already hard length, and letting herself get intoxicated on the pheromones quickly rolled so that she straddled his hips, leaving a surprised Will hanging.

“Hey...!” Will pouted, until Jack winked and nodded him over. Jack shunted up the bed an inch to let Will lie down and Will squeezed into and rested one hand on Jack’s groin possessively, while his other hand stroked down Roda’s hand to the belt of her trousers, more exploratively. He tugged back the waistline, playing with the string at the front, then chuckled inaudibly and brushed his fingertips across her body. As though electrocuted, Roda leaned back, arm stretched out by the handcuff chain, and pushed her hips down against Jack’s. “Skinny little thing like you, I don’t know why James was so worked up about his case.” Jack, eyes on Roda’s rolling hips, scowled momentarily.

“You don’t think I’m dangerous?” Roda all but whispered, holding Will’s hands in place, then purred. A little fun, then. She squeezed his wrist then let go, putting her free hand on his neck and nibbling his ear seductively. She’d gotten to know her captors rather well (or as well as she could) and although Jack was infallible in many ways, Will’s many addictions left him open to manipulation, if she used just a little bit of telepathic energy. It wasn’t enough for her to escape, because unfortunately, he didn’t have an addiction for helping people escape. But it might be enough to get a step in the right direction if he thought there was something in it for him. “Take this cuff off and find out.”

Shivering, Will did as he was told and Roda smirked, rubbing her wrist and licking his neck to keep him from realising what he’d done. He handed the cuffs to Roda absently just as she pulled away from his adam’s apple and patted his groin, looking pleased. Jack laughed, clearly amused, as Will blinked in confusion before pouting and pointing an accusing finger at the pair of them. “You little...!”

“Still think I’m not dangerous?”

“Oh, there was never any denying that, Red!”

Roda played with the chain of the cuffs in her hands, ignoring the cuts around her wrists, then sleekly grabbed Jack’s arm. He grabbed the hand that held him, clearly about to argue over who should be topping who, but then grinned, enjoying the game as well. Roda winked, and he let her take both his hands and slip the chain of the handcuffs around the end of the bed, cuffing one end to each of his wrists. Jack smirked, challenging Roda to go further, turn the tables on who held who prisoner, but she sat back on his hips and slowly removed his trousers, appraising the body that was quite a bit younger than she’d seen before, not pushing Will away as he started to play with her chest.

Roda’s hips moved against Jack’s, Will’s grip tightened, and at least for a couple of minutes, the three of them stopped snarking at each other long enough to have a different sort of fun. It wasn’t much longer before all three of them were struggling for breath and control, hands, mouths, hips and cocks moving in an almost blur of activity. Will was first to finish, alcohol robbing him of his usual stamina, and he melted into a puddle as Jack withdrew his attention to finish off himself and Roda, neither near-human quite capable of keeping up with a Time Lady.

Jack nuzzled into Roda’s bare chest as she fell half on top of him, and Will finally breathed out again, clinging to Jack’s sweat-soaked back and wrapping one leg up against him to get closer still. He had no plans to move, and neither did either of the others. Roda simply reached around Will to undo the cuffs so that Jack could drop his wrists from the headboard. Jack moved to the middle of the bed, dragging her only half unwillingly against him and wrapping his arms around her body as he pulled the sheets up, using his arms as a restraint to keep her from running in the night. Roda snorted once before kissing his jaw, turning slightly to jigsaw her body against his too, making a sandwich of exhausted time travellers.

Will made himself more comfortable similarly behind Jack, grunting at the nudge that half hardened his cock again, and a minute later was snoring, head resting against Jack’s back. Jack managed to chuckle quietly, murmuring in Roda’s ear. “Typical.” Roda kept up the imagining that this was her Torchwood Jack and not the vicious Time Agency one. Closing her eyes and purring contentedly, blue paints on her body more than a little smudged across both Jack and Will from sweat and more. Sensing nothing but well-fucked calm and a sort of affection from the two men, some even directed at herself, she sank into sleep at last, wrapping her arm around one of the pillows and curling up in a C-shape against Jack’s warm body.


	7. Chapter 7

“Roda....”

Jack’s warning tone was, surprisingly, enough to stop Roda from trying to escape. Poised by the door, where Jack’s coat was now hung up, and covering her chest with one arm, she turned, cursing, with the grace to at least look sheepish as Jack raised an eyebrow at her.

She should have known if he’d been willing to let her sleep without the handcuffs on then he was going to watch her like a hawk. Roda sighed, running a hand through her hair before whisking Jack’s long World War Two coat (surprised to know he'd had it this long, or maybe he'd just always had a penchant for them) from the back of the door and throwing it around her shoulders without so much as a by your leave. Damn it, she really didn’t want to go to the Time Agency again, even without her fear of what the Agency would have to say (and do) but after last night... And thinking about her friendship with Jack in the future... Pinching the bridge of her nose, the Time Lady half stormed back over to the bed and grumpily climbed over the snoring Will to lie down on Jack’s other side as far away from his partner as she could. At least she would be safe there. And maybe if she couldn’t escape then she could convince Jack to help her out later.

“Not gonna keep trying to escape?” Jack chuckled quietly, keeping his voice low so as not to wake the other Time Agent who was sprawled haphazardly in a drunken (and/or drugged) stupor across the majority of the bed. He shoved Will, like he was testing the waters, and when his only response was a half-conscious string of words which Roda could only make out as a ‘fuck off Jack’ he rolled Will onto his back and gave Roda some more room. She snorted, refusing to look at him and facing with her back to him and his coat pulled around her modesty, but moved back into the bed space gratefully. “I must have done something right, then.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” Roda was sleepy, and her murmur was fond, despite herself. “It’s not like I can go anywhere on this ship anyway.”

“Oh Redjay. You wound me.” Jack chuckled a little louder, and didn’t pause to ask permission before throwing an arm around Roda’s shoulders to pull her against his chest. Roda squeaked, and then let herself accept the comfort, rubbing her bandaged wrists and closing her eyes with a tired hum. Confused, and more worried than he’d care to admit, Jack worked his jaw before rubbing her shoulder. He smiled when Roda mumbled what he thought sounded like ‘bloody Cassanova’ and rested the back of her head underneath his chin. It was soothing, but in the way you could only stay for a night. Any relationship with this or any version of Jack was never built to last. “Penny for your thoughts?”

“Why’d you help me out? Yesterday.” It seemed like the best thing she could do was just blurt out the question in one go, eliminate any further awkwardness. “I mean you don’t even know me yet. And you’re a Time Agent. I don’t like dealing with Time Agents.” Jack paused, caught off guard. Roda could sense his telepathic turmoil even without trying to. He didn’t know himself, and something she’d said before and repeated now had set off bells ringing in his head, she could tell. There wasn’t much she could explain without destroying his timeline but she had to explain something. “You change, Jack.”

“Into this Captain Jack Harkness of yours?" Roda nodded. "You don’t mess with this level of perfection.”

“So you’ve said!” She hit him lightly over the shoulder, letting her head rest back on the pillow and focusing on the wall in front of her instead of Jack. She didn’t like being sandwiched into place like she was but she knew that if she tried to move, Jack wasn’t about to stop her so long as she didn’t try to leave the room. If she kept talking then she could ignore the claustrophobia. “But I mean it.”

“Alright, so I change. Change how?”

Roda glanced at Will before answering. “You’re gonna meet someone.” Jack snorted. “A great guy. Two great guys, actually-“

“I get a threesome?”

“No!” Roda rolled her eyes and snuggled more into Jack’s coat. Sensing her coldness Jack wrapped both arms around her. The Time Lady hummed as she found a way to continue and to explain. “It’s more... You’ll meet a guy, and he’ll inspire you. And I’m sorry and I can’t tell you more but things’ll look up and you’ll meet another guy who makes a mean coffee and you’re gonna change.” She rubbed the tops of her arms. “Don’t ask me to tell you more, alright?” Jack nodded, shrugging his shoulder. Roda couldn’t help but think he wanted to know more but would rather have a near-naked woman in his arms right now. Remembering what was going on, though, Roda pulled away from Jack that little inch. When she spoke again she muttered half in Gallifreyan, finishing on a very Boeshane – “Bloody Time Agents.”

Jack blinked. “You wanna explain the rest of that?” He stroked her hair. “You sound like Will when I stole his –“

“I’m not telling you about my life. Do you think I want to give the Time Agency anything else about me?” Roda rolled over so that she was facing Jack and thumped his chest when his eyes drifted down to her bare chest. Jack chuckled then turned serious again. “But the way I see it,” There was a sort of fire in Roda’s eyes now and Jack knew not to interrupt. It was the kind of look he saw in the faces of people about to jump out a twentieth floor window or pointing a gun at a policeman. There was a desperation there and it was the most honest she’d been since he’d arrested her. “...The way I see it the Time Agency owes me not the other way around.” Roda thrust her arm out of Jack’s coat and showed him the Old High Gallifreyan tattoo on her arm that proved her permanent exile. He was telepathic enough – he could see it, even if she couldn’t. “See this? This is the Agency’s fault. Partly. Now I can’t go home.”

Roda made to stand up but Jack grabbed her arm, stroking his thumb over the tattoo. His hand enveloped it and he tipped his head in a mixture of apology and defiance. “That wasn’t me.” Roda snorted but kept her mouth shut. “And I’m sorry, yeah? But you’ve made a name for yourself and so have I. I don’t think much of the Agency myself.” The Time Lady blushed, guilty. How could she have forgotten Jack’s motive for taking her in so easily? The missing years... His brother... She squeaked, ready to explain herself, but Jack shook his head. “You want to prove them wrong? Prove me wrong.” Jack yawned, the alcohol catching up with him, and Roda frowned.

“Prove you wrong?”

“Prove me wrong...” Jack began to snore lightly, and Roda slowly drifted off.


	8. Chapter 8

“You really should have cuffed me, Jack.”

Roda knew she should have felt bad about doing this to a friend but she hadn’t hurt him. That was the rationalization that she was giving to her conscience. She was sat on top of Jack, keeping him in place while she clicked his own cuffs around his wrists and the steering wheel of his new rental car. Will had split once the ship had landed – apparently in the pursuit of several women who he’d made a raincheck with – and left Roda and Jack alone to make their way to the headquarters of the Time Agency. Jack had reasoned that to get her this far without Will’s help in the first place meant he could get her the last leg of the journey, less than two hours from the port.

They’d only gotten ten minutes away from Will when Roda had complained of travel sickness – said it was to do from being away from her TARDIS too long yet still being on the move – and they’d pulled over. At which point Roda had come on to him after her ‘recovery’ and, using the lip gloss she’d stolen from Will the night before, paralyzed him long enough to make sure he couldn’t follow her.

As soon as she secured the cuffs, Roda leaned over to kiss Jack on the forehead and then frantically opened the glove compartment, keeping one of her arms straight. Before he’d been unable to move, Jack had been able to get a shot at Roda’s shoulder, just grazing the skin but aggravating her centuries-old wound. She managed to get the compartment open and groped for the other item she had stolen from Will, tapping the side of the needle nervously to dispel any bubbles from the antidote.

She’d only ever seen Galegochaelax use syringes, and never close up... But she couldn’t let herself be the death of Jack, not just because of the timelines she would destroy but also because of the friend she would have murdered. Holding Jack’s arm with her good hand, she stretched it out until she could find the vein in the crook of his elbow, plunging the needle in. She waited until Jack’s chest began to rise and fall again before breathing her own sigh of relief.

“Thank Rassilon... I’m sorry, Jack, but I have to go.” Jack’s hands twitched, and Roda climbed off of his lap, watching as he forced his face into a scowl, and a then a glare. He looked almost as though she was the one who had betrayed him, rather than he the one to capture her. Roda managed a fond chuckle, remembering the Jack of the future who would one day meet her. That Jack must have remembered her, if he hadn’t mentioned it; he must have recognized the danger of crossing his own timeline.

And now she thought about it, Roda remembered exactly what Jack had said to her when she’d woken up in Torchwood Three custody. Clever man. He’d done a good job of not recognizing her in his next breath. Levelling open the car door and climbing out, she pulled out one of her feathers, putting it playfully behind Jack’s ear before shutting the door. Then, as an afterthought, she rapped on the window and then opened the door again. “Don’t worry. You’ll catch me next time.”


	9. Epilogue

Jack looked down at the Redjay, a knowing smirk on his face. The Time Lady looked up from her perch in the back of a Torchwood cell, woozy and a little worse for wear. Jack would hardly blame her, since he’d just fished her out of the River Taff. But Jack couldn’t help his smile – a Torchwood cell, a TARDIS crashed into the River, and Roda had fulfilled a promise made centuries ago. Well, centuries ago for Jack; of course, the Roda Jack was meeting again now was yet to meet him at all. He supposed this was an example of what the Doctor liked to call wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey. Even though Jack was a different man now, he was unlikely to let the Redjay slip through his fingers a second time. After all, this time he had to make friends with her.

“Where the Skaro am I?”

Jack stepped out of the shadows, tipping his head to one side. He folded his arms over his blue shirt and his face broke into a wider grin. “This is Torchwood, Roda.” He winked. “Caught ya.”

**Author's Note:**

> James Scot, you ask? William Wolfram, you ask? WELL. Neither Jack nor John had their particular alibis had this point. And so I had to think up something.
> 
> I've borrowed the surname Harkness for a character in an original project, and so Jack became JAMES, that character's first name. And John Barrowman's middle name is SCOT. As for John, James Marster's middle name is Wesley which... John wouldn't use. But the actor also plays Spike from buffy who at one point was named WILLIAM, and in Angel the law firm is called WOLFRAM & Hart so I just stole the other half of it.
> 
> Though since Roda knows Jack as Jack, except in cases where John is talking, he'll remain Jack. But since Roda only knows John by reputation, she'll be mentally referring to him as Will. Hope no one gets lost!


End file.
